This article first appeared on Stuff and was republished with permission.
Make no mistake, Moana Pasifika are very much the real deal.
Aaron Mauger’s men of the moment gave crosstown rivals the Blues all they could handle in Tuesday’s first Super Rugby Pacific Auckland derby at Mount Smart Stadium.
Just four days after their historic victory over the Hurricanes at the same venue, the competition new chums pushed their big brothers from up the road to the limit, eventually beaten 32-19, but not before serving up a host of anxious moments for the visitors over the run home.
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There was a moment 10 minutes into the second half when Moana looked like they might have hit the lead, only for hooker Luteru Tolai to be denied a second try from the driving maul for a second movement.
The Blues survived that danger point, as well as a red card to All Blacks tighthead prop Nepo Laula in the 57th minute for a shoulder to the head of Lincoln McClutchie at a ruck, to rather scramble victory, five tries to three. They spent much of the second 40 on the back foot, and did well in the end to navigate an awkward situation a man down, with their opposition’s tails up.
Moana Pasifika were excellent off the lineout-drive, scoring two of their three tries via that avenue, and very nearly a third, but also looked likely with ball in hand when they got things rolling. Fullback D’Angelo Leuila had a strong game (53 metres on the carry), Solomone Kata grew into the game in midfield and wings Tomasi Alosio and Anzelo Tuitavuki were full of running.
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The Blues did enough, but continue to struggle to put full performances together. Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepens had a strong game with ball in hand (117m on 11 carries), Mark Telea and Tamati Tua had their moments and the pack, led by hooker Ricky Riccitelli and old dog Luke Romano, were also likely on the drive – scoring three tries themselves there.
Not surprisingly, both teams were decidedly scratchy as they interspersed errors with the positive stuff for the first part of this contest. That was to be expected given the scratch nature of both lineups as the coaches dug deep into their squads to get through a tough schedule of three games in little more than a week.
In effect this was the Blues backups against their Moana opposites, with one or two exceptions, and the result was that neither side exactly hit the ground running. But they did settle in time for a pretty decent contest to break out in the second half.
The Blues did what they had to to score three first-half tries en route to a 19-5 lead, but with two of those coming via the lineout-drive route, to hooker Riccitelli, it’s hard to imagine that coach MacDonald was too satisfied at the halftime break.
He would have been especially annoyed at giving up the late score to Moana hooker Luteru Tolai, also via a well-organised lineout-drive, though on balance it was probably the least the home side deserved in front of their small but vocal band of supporters.
When Moana scored first in the second spell, to prop Abraham Pole, it was game on. They even looked set to finish over the top of the visitors, only for Fin Christie’s late try to spare the blushes.
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